13.70.020 - DEFINITIONS SPECIFIC TO CONCURRENCY MANAGEMENT
A. Adequate Multimodal Transportation Facilities means pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and arterial street facilities which have the capacity to serve development while meeting the City's adopted level of service (LOS) standards. B. Arterial Street means any street that the Public Works Department has classified and adopted as a primary, secondary, or collector arterial in the Transportation Element of the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan. C. Calculated Level of Service (LOS) means the assessment of the number of person trips available in the committed multimodal transportation system compared to the multimodal transportation demands of new development, measured in person trips available. D. Committed Multimodal Transportation System means the entire system of multimodal transportation facilities and services used to calculate person trips available relative to a development proposal. It includes existing and proposed pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and arterial street facilities and services, which are adopted in the Transportation Element of the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan with a financial commitment for construction in the first, second, or third years of the most current adopted Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program, or for which other financial commitments have been secured. Related components of the committed multimodal transportation system include: 1. State highways and freeways within the City; 2. WTA transit routes and frequency, as identified in WTA Strategic Plans; 3. Park and ride lot locations; 4. High occupancy vehicle exclusive lanes; and 5. Projects to be provided by the State, cities or other jurisdictions may become part of the committed transportation system upon decision of the Director of Public Works. The Director of Public Works may make adjustments to the committed transportation system for corrections, updates, and modifications concerning costs; revenue sources; acceptance of facilities pursuant to dedications which are consistent with the adopted comprehensive plan; or the date of construction (scheduled for completion within the six-year period) of any facility enumerated in the Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program. 6. Developer committed improvements for arterials, transit, pedestrian, and/or bicycle facilities. E. Concurrency means that adequate transportation facilities are in place at the time of development approval or that a financial commitment is in place to complete the improvements or strategies needed for adequate transportation facilities within six years. Concurrency, as required by the 1990 Growth Management Act [RCW 36.70A.070(6)], means that the City may only permit development approval if a development would not cause level of service to fall below the City's adopted LOS standard of Person Trips Available within Cuncurrency Service Areas (CSA). For purposes of meeting the Growth Management Act requirements, in addition to City multimodal transportation facilities, the City will will incorporate State highways of regional significance within the calculation of Person Trips Available but will not apply concurrency to Highways of Statewide Significance consistent with RCW 47.06.140 The City will only include other Whatcom County or other transportation arterials outside of the City's jurisdiction in the calculation of Person Trips Available according to an executed interlocal agreement with the controlling jurisdiction or agency. F. Concurrency Application means formal submittal of a Concurrency Application Form to the Public Works Department identifying the complete scope and information needed to calculate the associated person trip generation of a proposed development. The concurrency application is the applicant's written request seeking review and approval of transportation concurrency from the City. G. Concurrency Approval means a determination by the Public Works Department that adequate person trips are available and the operational level of service (LOS) will not fall below the adopted level of service (LOS) standard due to transportation impacts created by the proposed development. H. Concurrency Evaluation means the process, which may include a trip generation analysis by the applicant, to determine whether adequate person trips are available for a proposed development. I. Concurrency Management System means the procedures and processes used by the City Public Works Department to determine that development permit approvals will meet the City's transportation concurrency requirements. J, Concurrency Measurement Point means a specific location on the multimodal transportation network used to measure vehicle traffic volume or transit srevice frequence (see Table 1). K. Concurrency Mitigation means transportation demand management strategies and/or multimodal transportation facility improvements constructed or financed by a developer which provides additional person trips for the facility which are needed to provide adequate Person Trips Available to serve the development proposal. Concurrency Mitigation applies to pedestrian, bicycle, transit, and arterial street facilities. L. Concurrency Service Area means a defined geographic area in which concurrency measurements points provide data used to calculate the number of Person Trips Available to new development on the transportation network serving area (See Figure 2). M. Development means specified improvements or changes in use of land, designed or intended to permit a use of land which will contain more dwelling units or buildings than the existing use of the land, or to otherwise change the use of the land or buildings/improvements on the land in a manner that will increase the number of person trips generated by the existing use of the land, and that requires a development permit from the City. A phased development is any development involving multiple buildings where issuance of building permits could occur for individual buildings. N. Final Certificate of Concurrency means the final certificate issued by the Public Works Department confirming the availability and reservation of a specified amount of capacity on the committed transportation system specific to the approved permit for development. A Final Certificate of Concurrency must be issued concurrently with development permit approval to account for any reduction in person trip reservation from Temporary Certificate of Concurrency. O. Financial Commitment consists of the following: 1. Revenue designated in the most currently adopted Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program for multimodal transportation facilities or strategies comprising the committed multimodal transportation system. Projects to be used in defining the committed multimodal transportation system for the calculation of Person Trips Available shall represent those projects that are identified as fully funded for construction in the first, second, or third years of the adopted Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program; or 2. Revenue from federal or state grants for which the City has received notice of approval; or 3. Revenue or secure bond that is assured by an applicant in a form approved by the City in a voluntary agreement. 4. Budgeted WTA service expansions. P. Growth Management Act (GMA) means the Washington State Growth Management Act enacted in 1990 and approved amendments. Q. Interlocal Agreement means an executed legal instrument structuring binding relationships between political entities as defined by RCW 39.34. R. Level of Service (LOS) Standard means the Person Trips Available (PTA) within each Concurrency Service Area (CSA) to serve new development as adopted in the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan. S. Multi-Use Trails include: 1. Off-street multi-use trails that are used for incidental alternative transportation purposes, in addition to the recreational purpose that they serve, that provide a safe alternative to unmarked bicycle routes on arterial streets; 2. Paved or prepared crushed rock surface trails. Trails with adequate drainage, and smooth even surface facilitating safe travel by cyclists. Trails with stairs, large roots, rocky sections, off-camber cross-sections, or areas with persistent standing water/puddles are not included; 3. Trails that are at least 6 feet, but preferably 8 feet or more, in width to facilitate safe bi-directional passage of cyclists and pedestrians; 4. Trails with slopes/grades of generally less than 5% average with maximum grades of less than 12%. T. Peak Hour Project Trips means the person trips estimated to be generated by a proposed development during the one-hour weekday afternoon period during which the greatest volume of users are on the multimodal transportation system. The peak hour project trips shall be estimated based on procedures identified in the City's Development Guidelines and Improvement Standards Manual. The peak hour project trips are used to determine Transportation Concurrency for development. U. Peak Hour VehicleTraffic means vehicle traffic volumes during the one-hour weekday afternoon period during which the greatest volume of vehicle traffic uses the arterial system, as identified separately at each appropriate Concurrency Measurement Point. V. Person Trips Available (PTA) means the ability of the committed transportation system to accommodate the transportation impacts of new development within a Concurrency Service Area (CSA) and is expressed in terms of weeksay PM peak hour person trips available. For purposes of the ocncurrency evaluation, the available person trips will be based on the total person trips calculated for each travel mode less the already used person trips for that mode. The sum of the available person trips for each mode will be the total available person trips for each concurrency evaluation area. W. SEPA means the State Environmental Policy Act (RCW 43.21) as implemented by the City of Bellingham. X. Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program means the expenditures programmed by the City for capital purposes over the next 6-year period in the 6-Year Transportation Improvement Program pursuant to RCW 35.77.010. The financial plan underlying the adopted 6-Year Transportation Improvement Program identifies all applicable and available revenue sources, and the plan forecasts these revenues through the 6-year period with reasonable assurance that such funds will be timely put to such ends. Y. Temporary Certificate of Concurrency means the initial certificate issued by the Public Works Department confirming the availability and reservation of a specified amount of capacity on the committed transportation system specific to the proposed development. Z. Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) means land use development that generally has the following characteristics: 1. A local node containing a mixture of uses in close proximity including office, residential, retail, public and civic uses; 2. High density, high-quality development within 10-minute walk (1/4 to 1/2 mile radius) surrounding transit stop; 3. Reduced and managed parking inside 10-minute walk (1/4 to 1/2 mile radius) sourrounding transit stop; 4. Transit stop as prominent feature of development; 5. Walkable design with pedestrian as the highest priority; 6. Designed to include the easy use of bicycles, scooters, and other non-motorized transportation modes; and 7. In some cases, supplemental transit systems including trlleys, streetcars, and where feasible, regional light rail or heavy rail systems. AA. Transportation Mitigation includes all non-concurrency measures required by City development regulations, State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) requirements, and Traffic Impact Fee (TIF) assessment to mitigate the non-concurrency related transportation impacts from a proposed development. BB. Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Strategies means techniques or programs that reduce single-occupant vehicle commute travel or improve the capacity of a transportation facility and that are approved by the Public Works Department. TDM Strategies may include but are not limited to vanpooling, carpooling, and public transit, access management, signalization, and channelization. CC. Travel Demand Forecast Model is the City's computerized transportation model, which is used to develop and analyze peak hour travel demands on the City's transportation facilities. This information is used as the basis for the Transportation Element of the Bellingham Comprehensive Plan and in other transportation planning and traffic engineering applications. [Ord. 2010-05-029; Ord. 2008-12-113; Ord. 2006-04-041]
